Building Update: Gym and Locker Room Opening

As students know, the new gym was officially opened for physical education and athletics on Monday, January 29. The first athletic contest in the gymnasium was a wrestling match on January 30. Principal Mary MacDonald confirmed that the transition to the new space has overall been smooth. The remaining challenges lie primarily in mastering the gym’s resources. MacDonald explained that currently only about two or three people are capable of controlling the gym’s assets, so they are working to increase faculty’s comfort level with skills such as using the scoreboard and opening the bleachers and divider.

On February 2, the school heard that they will be granted the Temporary Certificate of Occupancy for the locker rooms. Once they receive the physical copy of that early this week, the school will be able to obtain the necessary insurance, allowing the locker rooms to open. Still, the Wellness teachers will need to have their offices set up and give students an orientation before they can be utilized for physical education classes. MacDonald is anticipating that the locker rooms will be used in full by the end of this week.

The gap between the opening of the gym and the locker rooms, while perhaps inconvenient for physical education classes, ultimately meant that the gym could be opened sooner than it otherwise would have been. MacDonald explained that, in most projects, the gym would not have opened until the locker rooms were completely complete. Given the importance of the Mount Greylock Wellness and Athletics programs, however, the gym was opened as soon as possible, despite the incomplete locker rooms.

After the School Council meeting on February 13, we will know more about the timing for the opening of the rest of the school. MacDonald thinks that, at this point, an April opening is unlikely, “given how the forecasted schedule for the gym was enacted.” If the initial April projection is not met, students can expect a full-opening in September. Because students would then still be in the old building for the end of the school year, the project team would reorganize the work by shifting projects and costs. Specifically, work that would disrupt students would be done over the summer, while a greater focus would be put on exterior and landscaping in the meantime. This would also allow the auditorium and band room to open at the same time as the classrooms; if the April projection is met, the old building’s presence will cause egress issues preventing the use of the auditorium and band room.